Federal Attorney General Harald Range (AP)

According to a VNA correspondent in Germany, at a press conference on July 4 in Berlin, German Federal Minister of Justice Heiko Maas announced that he had "early retired" Federal Prosecutor General Harald Range, 67, after he accused the German government of political interference in the treason investigation of two journalists from the website Netzpolitik.org.

In a hastily announced press conference at the Federal Justice Ministry in Berlin, Mr Maas said he had asked Attorney General Harald Range to retire early after consulting with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Minister Maas stressed that his confidence in Range's ability to carry out his duties had been damaged.

On the same day, Minister Maas nominated Munich's Public Prosecutor General, Peter Frank, 46, as Range's successor.

Range said the Justice Department had asked him to remove an independent expert from the investigation into Andre Meister and Markus Beckedahl, journalists at the Netzpolitik.org blog, after the expert said the documents published by the journalists were "state secrets," a requirement for a treason investigation. Range said the request was a political interference in the independence of the judiciary.

The Justice Department questioned Mr Range's decision to investigate two journalists for Netzpolitik.org, which reported that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany's domestic intelligence agency, planned to expand its surveillance of online communications.

Several senior German officials have insisted that Berlin is committed to press freedom. Minister Maas also expressed skepticism that publishing the documents on the blog Netzpolitik.org could be a threat to Germany. The Federal Prosecutor General's Office has not yet said whether it will continue to investigate the case of the two journalists./.

(According to VNA/VN+)